Awards, Honours and Rankings

Tejinder Singh has come a long way since he was a boy who loved taking his electronic toys apart and seeing if he could put them back together again.

Now a postdoctoral fellow at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and a research associate at Waterloo Engineering, Singh added to a growing list of accomplishments when he was selected to receive the Spring 2021 Governor General’s Gold Medal for the highest standing in a doctoral program at the University of Waterloo.

School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability (SERS) student Maggie Chang is the 2021 Gold Medal winner. But that’s not nearly the most interesting thing about her. Chang is a poet, writer and artist whose environmental journey started in first grade when she learned about deforestation of the Amazon in school.

Years of study, hard work, headaches and triumphs have culminated in 1,298 students completing a math degree from the University of Waterloo. We offer sincere congratulations to all math students convocating.  

To help commemorate the occasion, we took a trip down memory lane with Kyle Adams, one of this year’s math grads, who shared the twists, turns and highlights of his academic journey.   

For Kyle, there was no question about where he should study math. As he put it, “Where else but Waterloo?”

The Governor General Gold Medal, one of the highest honours in academia, will be awarded to two exceptional University of Waterloo graduate students. Tejinder Singh, who graduated last fall from the Faculty of Engineering, will receive the award for highest standing in a doctoral program. Sara Leanne Wyngaarden, who is graduating this spring with an MSc in Health and Health Systems, will receive the award for highest standing in a master’s program. Awards like this allow our community to celebrate the impactful research and scholarly excellence of outstanding students.

As 457 undergraduate and 86 graduate students from the Faculty of Health prepare to virtually cross the stage this spring to convocate, we celebrate the hard work, perseverance, friendships and community it took to arrive at that moment – especially during a year that threw out the rule book on how courses should be delivered, how research is performed and how we interact socially with our peers.

We asked some of our award-winning graduates what it took for them to find success in a tough environment and what advice they would give to others who are currently studying.

It’s Spring Convocation again, and this year the Faculty of Science will grant over 850 students their hard-earned Bachelor of Science degree. But for Susan and James Hadden, both BSc ’90 biology alumni, there’s one graduate in particular who they’re most excited to welcome into the club: their daughter, Jocelyn, who has earned her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences.

Graduating from university is a significant achievement. Culminating years of dedication and hard work, convocation is a time for celebration — looking back with pride and looking forward with hope.

This milestone is even more meaningful for Waterloo’s six undergraduate valedictorians, who, for their social and academic contributions, have been chosen by their peers to represent them at their respective graduation ceremonies. Read about their Waterloo journeys below.

University of Waterloo is proud to highlight and honour some of our top PhD students who, through resilience, tenacity and excellence, will be graduating this spring. Below, six exceptional PhD students, one from each Waterloo faculty, share their impactful research, the passions that drove them, and what they will miss most (and least) about Waterloo.

FACULTY OF ARTS

Sarah McTavish

University of Waterloo’s alumni Calvin Choi (BA '01), who has distinguished himself in the international financial sector, and Chuck Magro (BAsc '93), a renowned business leader in Canada, will be the recipients of honorary doctorates at this spring’s convocation ceremonies.

> Calvin Choi (BA '01)
> Chairman, AMTD Group; Founder, AMTD Charity

An alumnus of Waterloo Engineering who parlayed his graduate research into a startup company that is out to solve worldwide water problems has been recognized by a national innovation organization.

Jason Deglint, a co-founder of Blue Lion Labs, is one of five winners of a Mitacs Entrepreneur Award for turning research into businesses that impact the lives of Canadians.